[BasicPatrick]

Some thoughts,

I did some learning about Bunker movements a few years ago when I was living in Hull and working/advocating on the issue of local depletion of Bunker. At the time, I was very confused as to how the Bunker stocks were being reported as in good shape when all we saw were a lot of Peanuts in the Fall and sporatic adults in the Spring and early Summer. We never saw those year classes that make up the "teenage" 4 to 8 inch bunker. Funny how those "teenagers" are the sizes that get hit hardest by the reduction boats.

What I learned was that the ocean currents, esp in the Gulf of Maine have a lot to do with what we see as far as all sizes of Bunker in this area.

I clearly remember the years from '95 to somewhere around Y2K before the Peanuts got thick on the South Shore. They were here those years but in numbers more like they are now, not in the large amounts of the banner years as we have had from say Y2K to '06.

The conversations I had in say '03 or '04 when we had loads of Peanuts but not many adults educated me on how little understanding the "experts" had on the movement of Bunker. At least today, there are some major studies ongoign as a result of the pressure the organized rec community & enviros coastwide put on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission a few years ago.

My "fisherman's" experience is that the number of Peanuts started to drop when the number of adults started to increase. Now some would think that this means the big numbers of Peanuts grew up and there are no juviniles to replace them. Unfortunately, that is not what sea sampling and other data indicates because what we were seeing on the South Shore changed from a lot of Peanuts to a lot of adults way too quickly and we never saw the "teenage" Bunker.

The best info I have learned tells me the change in migrating patterns that results in more adult and less Peanuts seems to have something to do with ocean currents and we need more understanding to really figure out what is going on.

I offer another bit of evidence to support the ocean current theory from a fisherman's perspective. The amount of serious beach erosion events that lead to breaches on Nauset, MV, Nantucket all began right around the time the Peanuts slowed and the adults dramatically increased. Another indicator of ocean current change.

What this means....I have no idea